About once a month, a group of teen moms at the Margaret Hudson Program gathered with their children in the school cafeteria for a story hour hosted by the Tulsa City-County Library’s Reading is Fundamental (RIF) program. Students with children in the toddler rooms were released from classes to attend. The girls were always delighted to spend time with their babies listening to stories during the school day, and especially if it meant missing science class.
At the end of every story session, the RIF representative allowed each student to choose two books from the boxes they had brought with them. Students could take the books home to read with their children. When my students returned from story time, I usually asked to see what books they’d chosen.
“Oh, that’s so cute!” I’d say, or “I read that one to my grandson.” Most students were similarly pleased with what they’d been gifted. However, some were not.
“My baby won’t hold still for me to read to him,” one student told me, dismissing the gifts “He just grabs the book and tears the pages.”
“That’s okay,” I told her. “Just spending time with him is special. He might not get much out of it now, but if you keep at it, you’ll form a great habit.” She gave her books to another student.
Reading is Fundamental (RIF) is a national initiative launched in the 1960s to support children’s literacy. Reading ability is foundational to academic success, and libraries have a vested interest in providing services to assist children in learning to read.
RIF’s program model is research-based and utilizes the five pillars identified in the Science of Reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. If essential elements of a reading program address these skills, a child is more likely to become a life-long reader—and as a result, a life-long learner. Developing a child’s joy in reading is the goal.
Characteristics of effective reading programs like RIF are frequency, motivation, and engagement. Consistency in reading—or being read to—regularly is clearly necessary to build good reading skills. Repetition and practice build on the skills noted in the five pillars, and frequent exposure leads to more rapid skill-building.
Human beings are programmed to attend to story, and our love of them begins early in life. A child who appreciates creative stories will be more motivated to read on their own. A motivated child perseveres when letters or words don’t at first make sense. Without this motivation, there is no interest in learning the skills.
Perhaps the most fundamental element of learning to read is—at least in the child’s eyes—a book worth reading. When children are exposed to engaging stories, they’re more likely to pick up books. Books with colorful or imaginative pictures are enough to capture a very young child’s attention. As they grow older and learn to associate a funny or curious story with the pictures, they realize there are other children like them in the world but also that there’s a whole world outside their own experience they might yet discover. What better reason could there be for children (or adults) to immerse themselves in a book?
The joy of reading extends beyond entertaining stories, however. I now read with first and second graders at a nearby elementary school who are struggling readers. In the six years I’ve been a Literacy Partner, or reading buddy, I’ve encountered a variety of personalities. Some are proud to be able to read a book to me. Some barely sit still when I read to them, because they’re so busy acting out the story scenes. A few are reluctant because they know they don’t read well—we often don’t enjoy doing what we don’t do well. In all cases, the children learn to appreciate spending one-on-one time each week with a caring adult.
Despite a child’s attitude, I’ve learned not to obsess over skill-building or vocabulary expansion. I see my primary function as introducing them to the outlandish, imaginative, and sometimes unbelievable world of books. The rest inevitably follows. I find every year, without fail, that each child’s reading skills improve over the months we’re together, and I celebrate that success. I gift each of them a book at the end of the year to bring home with them. Their very own book, chosen to fit their interests.
The organization I work with as a Literacy Partner (LP) is Education Connection, out of Austin, Texas. They operate in 16 area school districts and train around 1200 LPs each year. Each volunteer reads one-on-one with two or three children weekly. Education Connection’s motto is also their goal: Every child reading by the end of third grade. This arises from their foundational philosophy that children first learn to read, then read to learn at that critical juncture.
There are several surprising statistics that prompt both Education Connection and Reading is Fundamental to support a young child’s developing reading skills:
- 88% of high school students who fail to receive a diploma struggled to read in third grade
- 61% of low-income homes have no books
- In the lowest income homes, there is only one book for 833 children on average
- 25 million children in the US cannot read proficiently
- 70% of eighth grade students in the US do not read at grade level
According to the Child Mind Institute, the benefits of reading to small children include improving the child’s language development, developing a sense of empathy for others, and increasing the adult-child bond. After reading for years to my two children and three grandchildren, as well as to more than a dozen children in schools, I have witnessed these benefits.
Many parents, like my student who gave her free RIF books away, don’t read to their children at all. There are many reasons for this. There are no children’s books in some homes, as the above statistics show, perhaps because there are higher priorities for what few resources a family has. Parents who work long hours or two jobs just to make ends meet have little energy or time left to read with their children. Another reason is that some parents read poorly themselves and don’t feel confident reading to their children. I suspect that was the real reason my student donated her books to her classmate.
Some sources stress that reading to small children is the single most effective way to ensure their academic success once they go to school. It’s a small but delightful investment in a child’s future. I encourage you to find a child to read to today. I guarantee you will both benefit!
Janice Airhart 